Bit by Bit
by invisible-nobody15
Summary: After diving into his mind, Ino was determined to figure Sai out - even if she had to do it bit by bit. A series of InoSai One-Shots.
1. Colors

**Colors**

She sighed as she stared off at the clouds. It was a warm and beautiful morning, meaning that she had to spend it outside. Shikamaru must have rubbed off on her more than she thought if she was spending her day off watching clouds. She had to admit that it was meditative. Maybe that's why he did it so much. Even after all these years of knowing him, his genius still surprised her sometimes.

Ino sighed again as she thought about her lazy friend. She missed hanging out with him more than she was willing to admit out loud. With all of his work with Kakashi and the alliance, Shikamaru was much too busy to have any free time to spend with her or Choji. And even Choji was spending less and less time with her. Something must be going on in his life and she'd have to remember to ask about it later.

Today was her day off from the hospital, but Sakura still had to work. That left Ino all alone on the gorgeous afternoon. Her friends were growing up - becoming their own person and starting their own lives. Even Ino found herself becoming more and more caught up in her responsibilities.

Between her work at the hospital, her job with the interrogation division, and her regular missions, she'd never found herself busier in her life - which might've been part of the reason that her day off from everything felt so weird. According to Shikamaru, most of their friends had become borderline workaholics. Ino could only fathom the reason for this trend.

Without meaning to, her mind drifted to her most recent urgent mission - the Land of Silence. Shikamaru had gotten himself in too deep and she had to come and help him get out of it. Shinobi from every village were going missing or rouge and, it turned out, they had flocked to a man named Gengo in the Land of Silence. Even a member of Naruto's team, Sai, had fallen victim to the man's genjustu. Having gone into his head, it wasn't hard to see why.

Sai's mind was full of darkness. Just the memory of the cold, black place sent a shiver up her spine. It made her worry. But at the same time, it intrigued her. There was more to the pale man than a fake smile and a mouth he can't control. He was like a puzzle - one of the big ones with lots of pieces that no one ever bothered to put together. But Ino wanted to put them together; she wanted to solve Sai. And with that resolve came curiosity. She needed to get to know the man, as hard as that might be with the comments and remarks that he makes.

She'd have to start simple.

Sitting up, she spotted him sitting on Kakashi's stone face. Tentatively, she made her way across the village and up the mountain to where he was sitting. She did her best not to sneak up on him. "Hey Sai."

Without looking up from what he was drawing, he replied, "Hello."

"What are you drawing?" She asked, trying her best to be friendly even in response to his rudeness. "Anything special?"

"No."

Growing frustrated - Choji was right, she did need to work on her short temper - she decided to stop beating around the bush and get to the point. "What's your favorite color?"

"Hm?" He asked, finally looking at her. "What's my favorite color?"

Ino put her hands on her hips. "You heard me. What's your favorite color, Sai?"

He seemed to contemplate the simple question for a moment, looking out over Konoha. A few minutes passed by without Sai providing an answer. Ino saw him scrunch up his brow ever so slightly, as if he just couldn't get a grip on what he was being asked. "Hm."

"Sai," Ino said, raising her voice, "all I wanted to know was your favorite color. Just pick one!"

"I don't know." Sai replied, seemingly unaffected by Ino's outburst. "I don't really understand."

Ino sighed loudly. "You're an artist, aren't you? You have to have a favorite color. Just let me know. I'm not going to get offended or anything."

Sai shrugged his shoulders, an unreadable expression on his face. "I don't have a favorite color. Why have a favorite color? Do people choose which color they like over the others often?"

Ino held her head, shaking it. "Never mind. Don't worry about it."

Sai flashed an empty smile. "Okay."

Ino walked away, trying to get a grip on her attitude. She couldn't tell if he was being honest, or if he enjoying aggravating people like that. For now, Ino was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that it was a mixture of both. Who in their right mind asks why people have a favorite color? She couldn't get a grip on it. She spotted Choji walking into the village through the front gates and made her way over to him.

Getting to know Sai was going to be harder than she thought.


	2. Festival

A/N: Hi everyone! Another chapter just a couple days later? And from me? Holy cow, this had to be a new record! I'm not really good at this one-shots/drabbles thing. I'm much better, if you've ever read my stuff, with just one big One-Shot that has one plot line to it. These shorties are so weird for me to write, so I hope this one turned out as good as the last one! A bit longer this time, but still much, much shorter than what I usually write.

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Festival**

Ino smiled as she finished putting on her makeup. She was more than excited for the day to come. The posters had been hanging up in Konoha for weeks now. She's gone to the festival every year since she was born.

She left her bathroom and picked up the telephone that had recently been installed in her house. She dialed the sequence of numbers that would connect her to another phone in Shikamaru's house. It rung four times before she heard her lazy friend's voice. _"Hello?"_

"Hey Shikamaru!" Ino greeted brightly. She heard a groan from Shikamaru. "Well, Mr. Grumpy, are you almost ready or not?"

 _"Ready for what?"_ He asked.

Ino scrunched up her face, despite the fact that he couldn't see her. "For the festival! Did you forget that it was today? Hurry up and get ready to go!"

 _"Oh."_ She heard him reply. She didn't talk, signalling him to elaborate. _"I knew that was today, but I can't go. I thought you knew that."_

"No!" Ino shouted through the phone, not thinking about the other teenager's eardrums. "Of _course_ I didn't know that! You, Choji, and I have gone together every year since we were babies! Before we even knew how to walk! You can't actually be cancelling on me this year!"

She heard a sigh from the other side of the line, and she could vividly see his face in her mind. _"I'm sorry, Ino, but there's an important meeting today at HQ and I gotta be there. I'm already on a short leash because of what Kakashi and I pulled with Gengo. I can't afford to mess things up again."_

"Shikamaru!" Ino yelled. "You're just going to leave Choji and I hanging?"

 _"Choji isn't coming either."_ He told her hesitantly, not wanting any more of her attitude thrown in his face over the phone. _"He left the village on a mission late last night. I think he was heading to Kumo."_

 _Of course_ , Ino thought to herself, _because of that girl he likes._

"Fine. I'll go by myself!" She huffed, slamming the phone down - effectively hanging up and ending her conversation with the genius Nara. She knew she would have to apologize later, but for the moment she wallowed in her anger. She blew strands of hair out of her face.

She wasn't _not_ going to go to the festival. It meant a lot to her to go. She had so many childhood memories there with her father, that not going almost seemed like a betrayal of sorts. Not to mention, she would do anything to feel closer to her dad again. Even though his death was over a year ago, she still felt the pain keenly every time she opened the flower store and he wasn't working there with her.

She grabbed her jacket and bitterly put it on. Trying to look proud in her stride, she left her house and made her way through Konoha. As soon as she stepped out the door, she could tell the festival had started. Most of the streets were abandoned and silent. Other than the wind, the only sound that could be heard was the distant sounds of music and voices - they were coming from the celebration.

She soon forgot about her flaky friends as she grew closer and closer to her destination, her excitement growing with every step. But something caught her eye along the way that made her stop. Sitting on the ground in front of a closed restaurant, brush in full motion, was Sai.

She had been talking to the man more often lately - trying to strike up a conversation with him whenever they ran into each other on the street - and she's had little to no success almost every time. A couple of times, however, she did manage some conversation and got to know him a little bit better; get him to be a little bit more comfortable around her. She called out to him, curious. "Hey, Sai! Whatcha doin'?"

He replied, again, without looking up. "Hello, Beautiful."

She couldn't help the eye roll that she did at the sound of the stupid nickname he gave her. She didn't need a top ANBU member sarcastically giving her a compliment. _Not_ on her bucket list. "What are you doing sitting here? Shouldn't you be with everyone else?"

"No." He replied, briefly looking up at what he was drawing - was he drawing the cat? - before looking back down at his paper. "I'm not a big fan of crowds."

Ino gaped. There _was_ someone in Konoha who didn't come to the festival and didn't have an excuse? It almost seemed illegal to her. "You can't just _not_ go! It's a big deal, Sai! Have you skipped it every year?"

He finally looked up at her, his expression cold and blank. "I never knew that it happened until after the Fourth War."

"What?" She exclaimed, growing more and more astonished by the pale man in front of her with each passing moment. "Foundation members don't, err, _didn't_ attend?"

Sai shrugged. "We didn't do much of anything except go on missions."

"Well," Ino declared, fists on her hips, "you're going this year, and I'm going to bring you myself."

Sai shook his head, giving her another fake smile. _Where's the smile he gave me when I was inside his mind?_ "I'm fine here, drawing."

She grabbed his wrist, not giving him a choice. If he never went anywhere or did anything with his newfound freedom, what was the point of abolishing the Foundation in the first place? She began dragging him down the street, trying to ignore his protests. If he didn't want to go _that much_ , she didn't have any doubt that he could escape the weak grip that she had on him.

Together, they walked up to the 'entrance' of the festival. Giant banners and balloons, music and food, masks and face paint, singing and dancing, games and contests - Ino loved every moment of it. She turned to look at Sai. "Ready to go in?"

Sai shook his head. "I really don't think this sort of thing is for me."

Ino waved her hand. "Nonsense. C'mon!"

She dragged him, first, to one of the bands that were playing. It was a local band, one she had never heard of, but they weren't half bad. Sai didn't sing, or dance, or even bob his head along, but he seemed to enjoy the music - he never took his eyes off the band as they sang. Ino couldn't prevent the smile that pulled itself onto her face.

Lunch came, and she bought enough food to feed an army. She watched Sai pick tentatively at it at first, but soon he was eating more than she was, at twice the speed. Ino couldn't begin to fathom where this appetite came from, or where he was putting all of the food. She giggled and he paused his eating, mouth full of food, and asked her what was so funny. She didn't tell him.

Next, she took him to the street that was lined with games. Even though she knew most of them were rigged, she doubted that Sai did. She coaxed him into trying a few games that she was confident he had the 'skills' for: kunai throwing, water guns, and tossing a ball into fishbowls. With each game he lost, he seemed to grow more frustrated.

He scrunched up his face when he lost at a game, and it was the most adorable thing.

 _Adorable?_ Ino thought, frightened, _Where had that thought come from?_

She pushed it to the back of her brain as she continued to drag Sai from one event to the next. They continued the pattern until long after dark. Ino yawned, declaring that it was time for her to be heading out. She asked Sai if he wanted to stay longer, and he shook his head.

"Did you have a good time?" Ino asked him as they walked down the silent streets, a huge contrast from the blaring music they've been around for the past twelve hours.

Sai nodded. "Yes. It was much different than I thought it was going to to be."

Ino nodded, smiling. "Well, it's a lot more fun when you're there with someone, as opposed to wandering around by yourself."

"Thank you for taking me." Sai said, bowing his head.

Ino blushed slightly, embarrassed by the sudden show of respect. "Lift your head, Sai. It's really not that big of a deal. My friends fell out on me, and you were sitting in the street by yourself. Of course I was going to bring you along."

He nodded, and again said, "Thank you."

He smiled, and Ino felt something warm bubbling up inside her chest; her legs felt like jello.

"O-Of course." Ino stuttered, unlocking the door to her house. Sai put his hand on her shoulder and a fire shot through her arm, the body part suddenly feeling a lot warmer. "H-Have a good night!"

She quickly shut the door, leaning her back against it. Ino put her hand on her chest, steadying her breathing. She felt her heart beating harder and quicker than normal. She slid down to the ground, closing her eyes. What was wrong with her? She hadn't exercised at all that day, so why did she feel like she just ran a mile?

And that smile that he gave her. _That_ was the smile that she remembered from diving into his conscious. _That_ was the smile that was the final stepping stone to her decision to get to know him. How he could be so cold and distant, putting a fake smile on to get out of tough situations, and yet have the ability to smile so warmly. _Why didn't he do it more often_ , was what she had wondered. And just now, when he gave her that warm smile, she had melted. She felt like Ino-butter being put into a microwave.

And what happened when Sai innocently touched her shoulder? She had been dragging him by his wrist all day, and she hadn't felt anything unusual. Maybe she just ate too much earlier and was feeling sick. That would explain the nausea in her stomach. And it's certainly better than the alternative. It was ridiculous, right? It was impossible. There was no way that…

She had a crush on Sai.

 _Oh no..._


End file.
